	{"id":102480,"date":"2025-07-05T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/?p=102480"},"modified":"2025-07-02T19:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:23:11","slug":"voucher-program-expands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/","title":{"rendered":"Voucher program expands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>THE Community Choice voucher program has been expanded into Rokewood.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative provides assistance to people facing financial hardship, allowing them to access food and medication locally.<\/p>\n<p>Hesse Rural Health is the primary agency that is allocating vouchers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Give Where You Live Foundation&#8217;s Community Choice initiative is an emergency relief voucher program providing support for people experiencing financial crisis in our region,&#8221; a Golden Plains Shire spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Golden Plains Shire is proud to be part of this initiative, as it&#8217;s designed to provide emergency relief in the form of basic food and medication vouchers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The initiative provides choice and dignity for people seeking emergency relief and an opportunity for businesses in our region to be part of the solution, actively creating a fairer community and a supportive network that benefits everyone involved.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was piloted in Bannockburn where residents could redeem vouchers at Shazza&#8217;s Fruit and Veggies and Terry White Chemist.<\/p>\n<p>Residents can now also redeem vouchers at Rokewood Takeaway and HealthEZ Pharmacy.<\/p>\n<p>The aim of the expansion is to allow residents to access support closer to home and it is hoped the program will be available across the Shire in the future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Being able to access support locally is a great way to decrease barriers to residents in accessing assistance support close to home, while strengthening our sense of community with the active participation of local businesses,&#8221; the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This expansion aims to alleviate the burden of residents having to travel outside of the township for necessities, like food and medication, and the goal is to extend the program to all areas within the Shire over the coming months.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To find out more about the program, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/3ZIhl5s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bit.ly\/3ZIhl5s<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE Community Choice voucher program has been expanded into Rokewood. The initiative provides assistance to people facing financial hardship, allowing them to access food and medication locally. Hesse Rural Health is the primary agency that is allocating vouchers. &#8220;The Give Where You Live Foundation&#8217;s Community Choice initiative is an emergency relief voucher program providing support [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":102483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-102480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Voucher program expands - Golden Plains Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Community Choice vouchers now available in Rokewood, helping locals in crisis access food and meds through Hesse Rural Health support.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voucher program expands - Golden Plains Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Community Choice vouchers now available in Rokewood, helping locals in crisis access food and meds through Hesse Rural Health support.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Golden Plains Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-04T18:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2025\/07\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Miriam Litwin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Miriam Litwin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Miriam Litwin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5d26a285fac71a1bba0f33ca120717d1\"},\"headline\":\"Voucher program expands\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-04T18:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":291,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/\",\"name\":\"Voucher program expands - Golden Plains Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-04T18:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Community Choice vouchers now available in Rokewood, helping locals in crisis access food and meds through Hesse Rural Health support.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Relief: The Community Choice voucher program is now available in Rokewood. Photo: SUPPLIED\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/news\\\/voucher-program-expands\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Voucher program expands\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/\",\"name\":\"Golden Plains Times\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Golden Plains Times\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/GoldenPlainsNew.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/23\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/GoldenPlainsNew.png\",\"width\":3208,\"height\":336,\"caption\":\"Golden Plains Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5d26a285fac71a1bba0f33ca120717d1\",\"name\":\"Miriam Litwin\",\"description\":\"Miriam Litwin is a journalist and digital content lead with the Ballarat Times, Golden Plains Times and Moorabool News, covering local politics and community news.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/goldenplains\\\/author\\\/miriam\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Voucher program expands - Golden Plains Times","description":"Community Choice vouchers now available in Rokewood, helping locals in crisis access food and meds through Hesse Rural Health support.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Voucher program expands - Golden Plains Times","og_description":"Community Choice vouchers now available in Rokewood, helping locals in crisis access food and meds through Hesse Rural Health support.","og_url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/","og_site_name":"Golden Plains Times","article_published_time":"2025-07-04T18:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2025\/07\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Miriam Litwin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Miriam Litwin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/"},"author":{"name":"Miriam Litwin","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#\/schema\/person\/5d26a285fac71a1bba0f33ca120717d1"},"headline":"Voucher program expands","datePublished":"2025-07-04T18:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/"},"wordCount":291,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2025\/07\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/","name":"Voucher program expands - Golden Plains Times","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2025\/07\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png","datePublished":"2025-07-04T18:00:00+00:00","description":"Community Choice vouchers now available in Rokewood, helping locals in crisis access food and meds through Hesse Rural Health support.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2025\/07\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2025\/07\/Untitled-design-2025-07-02T145234.706.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Relief: The Community Choice voucher program is now available in Rokewood. Photo: SUPPLIED"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/news\/voucher-program-expands\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Voucher program expands"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#website","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/","name":"Golden Plains Times","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#organization","name":"Golden Plains Times","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/GoldenPlainsNew.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/GoldenPlainsNew.png","width":3208,"height":336,"caption":"Golden Plains Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/#\/schema\/person\/5d26a285fac71a1bba0f33ca120717d1","name":"Miriam Litwin","description":"Miriam Litwin is a journalist and digital content lead with the Ballarat Times, Golden Plains Times and Moorabool News, covering local politics and community news.","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/author\/miriam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102480"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=102480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}